The judge in the murder trial for former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez said jurors reported that a news vehicle followed a jury bus and watched them, which is an "extremely serious" violation, WCVB's Liam Martin said.

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Two jurors claim the news vehicle followed the jury bus, stopped, turned around and watched the jurors as they left, Martin said.

Judge Susan Garsh said the incident could have resulted in a mistrial, and she considered banning the news organization from the courthouse.

“Two jurors have reported that yesterday that a particular WHDH-TV van was at the parking lot, was looking at jurors, was driving after cars and one the jurors got behind it (news van) and took a picture of the license plate (of the news van.)," Garsh said.

"This is an extraordinarily serious matter. There is, I think, a 10-year felony statute, that prohibits any form of juror harassment.

"It is the court's view that there (have) to be consequences for that. One of the consequences the court is considering is barring WHDH in its entirety from this courthouse,” Garsh said in court.

Under Massachusetts General Laws, it is a felony to harass a member of a jury, and offenders could face up to 10 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 or both.

Garsh later banned the photographer who was driving the van, Robert Cusanelli. from the courtroom for the length of the trial. She required Cusanelli to testify under oath in order to avoid having to ban WHDH in its entirety from the courthouse.

During his testimony, Cusanelli said that he was under the impression that it would be useful for WHDH to know where jurors were getting on and off the bus each day, but that no one from the organization specifically instructed him to obtain this information.